diamonds and coal

my neighbor believes that bad things come in threes. she might be right -- i know that whenever one celebrity dies, it seems that very shortly thereafter, two more die. and for her she had a hot water heater go in her apt. and then the water pump in her van, so she was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak.

she came over yesterday to gorilla glue my cupboard shelf brackets into place. you see, about 8 months after they installed the new kitchen cabinets, i had a shelf fall down on me. the bracket came out of the socket it was resting in partly because the shelves were cut about 1/2 inch too short. unfortunately, that shelf contained a lot of my cups and my irreplaceable tea pot to my dinnerware pattern and some irreplaceable glass dishes that were my mom's. when i complained to the office about it, i was told to get my renter's insurance to pay for the damages -- as if paying for the items would make it all better. of course, i have a deductible on my insurance and their feeling was that it was the housing authority's issue since they installed faulty cabinets. even though this same issue happened with several other residents, and was reported to the office, nothing was done to rectify the faulty cabinet shelves and we've all just "dealt" with it for the last couple of years. but my neighbor finally figured out that if we gorilla glued the brackets in place, they would be less likely to pop out and since she did her's she figured she would come over and do mine.

this meant that i had to unload two of my shelves. which i did. and i realized just how much stuff i have in that one cupboard and it got me to thinking about moving and how much stuff i have all over the house and how difficult it will be to do that alone. now i don't have any solid plans to move anywhere in the immediate future, but u never know what might happen, since i'm about to write a letter to the housing authority about a rent increase issue, and they don't seem to appreciate it when u put something in writing (probably because it leaves a paper trail). so u never know.

I've had a couple of "coal" events this week. the first was the not getting too far with the financial aid offices of the two colleges my daughter is truly interested in attending. the second was a rent increase, that although i knew it was coming, i couldn't comprehend the amount they actually came up with because it revolved around me working 52 weeks a year and i don't know anyone who works 52 weeks a year, although i'm sure there are ppl who work 52 weeks a year, i'm just not one of them. and the third was a letter i got yesterday from Old Navy saying they were dropping my credit limit to $100 from $450 because seemingly i'm too much more of a credit risk now than i was 1 year ago when they gave me the card (and truly my financial situation has not changed one iota since then but whatever). and considering that i rarely use the card (we live 80 miles from the nearest Old Navy and probably shop there once in a blue moon and u know how often they happen) and that i pay the bill off immediately or at least within the first two billing cycles, i figure they just decided to do it because they rn't "making enough money" off me. so i'm probably going to be writing them a letter and telling them what they can do with their silly card because truly the only reason i got the card in the first place was to take advantage of the points u earn towards free stuff. but who needs them...

at any rate, as i lay in bed this morning thinking about "coal" events of the last week,i decided that i wasn't in the right mood to go to church. and truly we should stay home any how because my daughter really needs to work on her scholarships, since the two schools she applied to rn't going to give her much in the way of financial aid (even though she lives with a mom who hasn't worked a steady job in two years). so we're staying home, and having our usual pillsbury orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast. its a tradition in our house that on sunday mornings i would always make them -- some things r hard to let go of. i'm feeling just a tad like a heathen right now (and not just because i'm about to eat fattening cinnamon rolls.

on the bright side, i bought my daughter a tea kettle identical to mine for $3 and a Brita water pitcher for 92 cents at the thrift store so she can take them to college now. and i had a job interview last monday. it was the first in a long time and at least i got the interview, because most of the jobs i've applied for lately i haven't even been called for an interview, let alone gotten a letter saying "we're sorry we've already filled the position with someone more qualified" blah blah blah stuff. so there is hope now that if i could glean one interview, i might actually glean more .... so that's three diamonds. three diamonds to three pieces of coal. and i'm still smiling, mostly..... coz things do come in threes -- even the good ones ....